KUALA LUMPUR (THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) - Malaysian police denied a British tabloid report which claimed that the 11 alleged militants arrested in Kedah and Selangor last week were being interrogated on the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.

"That's rubbish! This has nothing to do with the plane," Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar told The Star on Sunday.

The militant group, which was targeted last week by the Bukit Aman Special Branch Anti-Terrorism Unit, is believed to have networks in Syria and southern Philippines and was planning to send Malaysian fighters to Damascus.

Mr Khalid said police would investigate the possibility that the group was recruiting foreign students via social media, adding that more arrests would be made soon.

Britain's Daily Mirror had reported on Saturday that the 11 arrested alleged militants had links to the Al-Qaeda, and were being questioned over the disappearance of Flight MH370.

It said that the suspects were members of a violent new terror group said to be planning bomb attacks in Muslim countries.

The report claimed that investigators, including the FBI and MI6, had asked for the alleged militants, who are aged from 22 to 55, to be interrogated.

They include students, odd-job workers, a widow and business professionals.

It was reported that in the interviews conducted so far, some suspects had admitted planning 'sustained terror campaigns' in Malaysia, but denied being involved in the disappearance of the airliner.

Flight MH370 went missing on March 8, with 227 passengers and 12 crew members on board, while en-route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

A massive search and rescue operation was conducted, first in the South China Sea, and later in the southern Indian Ocean.

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